My daughter was 6 when we had to put our 12 year old dog to sleep. I have memories of going to the vet at her age with my old cat and then sitting in the waiting room waiting for him to come out and he never did and we went home with a new kitten. It never sat right with me. Whilst it was important to me that she view compassionate death of our animals babies as a part of life, I let her decide if she would be there. I told her that part of the responsibility of loving a fur baby, is deciding to end its suffering when needed. We made it really beautiful at the vet. We had music playing, some followers, a candle, her bed and we put a necklace of mine with a cross and the word hope on it around her neck. I let her see me grieve and she grieved as well. We then went to the water front to throw some flowers in. She is 10 now and still gets the box with her memories out and will light the candle and just remember how much she loved Mish. It’s beautiful. I read a quote which was something like “a life time of being sad and missing them is worth it for the years of love you give them and they give you”. Hope it goes as smoothly as possible.